1st May, 2024
By Taiwo Okanlawon
The fuel scarcity has continued to bite harder on motorists and commuters in Lagos city, the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, and other cities across the country.
In Lagos, our correspondent observed that commuters bemoaned the hike in transportation fares owing to the current fuel scarcity as queues return to many filling stations across the city.
It was also gathered the situation is the same in Abuja as one of the worst hit areas.
According to our reporter, some retail outlets for sell between N800 and N,1200 per litre after hours of squabbles, while black market is sold around N1,500 per litre.
It was also gathered that many retail outlets were shut, with their excuses being supply challenges. Whille NNPC retail outlets sell petrol at N610 to N650 per litre.
Some motorists told our reporter that they had to painstakingly endure the unending queues and jostling for sometimes six hours.
Meanwhile, the National Association of Nigerian Students, NANS, has threatened to embark on mass action if the Federal Government failed to take immediate steps to address the current fuel scarcity in the country.
The association’s Senate President, Babatunde Akinteye, in a statement on Monday, lamented that the fuel scarcity has left many citizens, including students, frustrated and helpless.
He added, “The consequences of this fuel crisis are dire, with electricity supply remaining unreliable, prices soaring, and essential services paralyzed. Nigerian students, along with the rest of the population, are bearing the brunt of this crisis daily.
“We demand immediate actions from the NNPCL to resolve the fuel crisis and restore stability to our nation.”
Speaking during an interview on Channels Television’s ‘The Morning Brief breakfast programme’ on Monday, the National President of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, PETROAN, Billy Gillis-Harry, blamed the fuel scarcity across the country on a supply challenge from NNPC Limited.
Mr Gillis-Harry, who explained that the supply challenge has not been resolved, however, acknowledged the efforts by NNPC Ltd to solve the problem.
He said NNPC has its own outlets that they also serve.
“So if they have some logistics issues, that will possibly be what is internal to NNPC. But as for us, PETROAN members, we can tell Nigerians for real that if we have petroleum products delivered to us, supplied to us upon payment for those same products, we will supply them to Nigerians.
“I would like to correct Nigerians that we, retail outlet owners or marketers as they generally call all of us, are not the reason for this. We do not have any reason not to serve the public and we are willing to serve the public.
“All that is required is for us to have petroleum products delivered to us from NNPC and we will make sure that our retail outlets are open, some of them are even open for 24 hours. The challenge of logistics is only relevant to the NNPC retail outlets,” he said.